18th Century Samurai text - too deadly for competition

For those not wanting to click through, it's an article about a recently translated training manual for Samurai from the 19th century. Key bits that I found interesting were part of the 'Rules for Samurai' that admonish students 'Do not complete' and a what seems to be a general emphasis on not really employing the techniques taught -secrecy and school mystique seeming to be of paramont concern. I guess it's good to know that this kind of **** isn't a new development in MA.

For those not wanting to click through, it's an article about a recently translated training manual for Samurai from the 19th century. Key bits that I found interesting were part of the 'Rules for Samurai' that admonish students 'Do not complete' and a what seems to be a general emphasis on not really employing the techniques taught -secrecy and school mystique seeming to be of paramont concern. I guess it's good to know that this kind of **** isn't a new development in MA.

I wouldn't think it's really all that surprising, given the historical context. The samurai in general and their fighting methods in particular were pretty obsolete by the time this text was written. I suspect bujutsu training at that point in history had more to do with keeping a tradition alive and preserving a way of life than with learning a practical fighting system.

I wouldn't think it's really all that surprising, given the historical context. The samurai in general and their fighting methods in particular were pretty obsolete by the time this text was written. I suspect bujutsu training at that point in history had more to do with keeping a tradition alive and preserving a way of life than with learning a practical fighting system.

You beat me to it. Plus, the Bakufu needed to keep them occupied with something. Samurai were not all warriors, and Japan had been basically at peace for over 100 years a that point.

The samurai in general and their fighting methods in particular were pretty obsolete by the time this text was written.

Obsolete outside Japan, but in 1844, Japan was still rigidly isolated from the rest of the world. When the Meiji Restoration hit 25 years later, and Western-style armies started to take the field, it became obsolete very rapidly, but that hadn't happened yet at this point.

I suspect bujutsu training at that point in history had more to do with keeping a tradition alive and preserving a way of life than with learning a practical fighting system.

After 200+ years of the Tokugawas clamping down hard on any internal conflicts, yes, though there was still at least an element of "practical fighting system" in the background, unlike the state that schools found themselves in 30 years later. There were still a few schools that took things more seriously, though. Modern kendo evolved out out of Itto-ryu discovering live training 60 or 70 years before this, and ditching most of their previous training methods in favour of it.